Thank you for your terrific thread PsychDoc. Long ago Leo728 had suggested we clean up our soft inquiries by disputing them. I was busy getting 26 hard inquiries deleted and also unconcerned about my soft inquiries. Therefore, I did nothing. When Experian eliminated the ability to dispute inquiries, I only had one (1) hard inquiry from ten months earlier remaining. I had disputed it twice and unfortunately it was verified each time. As we all know, EX only allows us to dispute an item twice and then we have to live with the results - pleasant or unpleasant. On Friday, I read Doc's thread and disputed all my soft inquiries with the exception of the CreditExpert inquiry. I did not want to "rock the boat" by disputing anything related to EX. On Saturday, I was delighted to see that 20 disputed soft inquiries that were over one year old were gone from my credit report. However, all the soft inquiries that were less than one (1) year old remained disputed not deleted. I also discovered that I had forgotten to dispute one of the soft inquiries from August 2000. Here is what happened when I attempted to dispute the August 2000 inquiry on Saturday... I was unable to "open new window" per Doc's instructions in order to start the dispute process. On the computer, this command was visible but not available. Put another way, available commands are "visible, bold and black" and respond to the left click of a mouse. Unavailable commands are "visible and white" and do not respond to the left clickof a mouse. Therefore, I shut the computer down and left the building where I was working. I drove over to another location in my car, turned on another computer and with no difficulty disputed the August 2000 soft inquiry. Today, Sunday, this inquiry has disappeared from my credit file. Now I have 21 apparently deleted soft inquiries. I have not been E-Mailed any correspondence from Experian. Just like everyone else, I am curious as to what else will happen on this matter. My credit score has not changed with the apparent deletions. As a side issue, I did unsucessfully try to dispute my one (1) remaining "hard inquiry. Since it is now eleven (11) months old, I couldn't care less about it. If anyone has trouble deleting soft inquiries, I suggest you use another computer. You may get a positive result like I did. P.S. - LKH it is good to see you are still with us !!!
Jim, Good to see you post as always. Just wondering, since you can tell immediately with CE, if you (or anyone) who has removed this many inquiries has seen ANY score increase at all? This would be an easy way of seeing directly if they have any impact. Congratulations on the deletions. -Peace, Dave
Re: Doc's trick - 21 soft inq's del Way to go, Jim! I've really been taking to heart some of Marie's work regarding opting-out, its impact upon scores over time (rather than instantly), and the impact of certain soft inquiries. Both my wife and I decided recently to permanently opt out of all soft inquiries ("promo" stuff), so we called 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688) and selected choice 3. If we decide to opt back in, we can always do so at the same phone number. I'm at the point where I believe that certain soft inquiries erode the score over the long haul. I also believe that their presence doesn't negatively impact the score immediately, nor does their deletion offer a similar immediate gain. However, if what Marie suggests is true, then I want nothing more to do with such "soft" inquiries anymore. Doc P.S. Dave, I had 3 hard inquiries and 7 soft ones deleted Saturday. By Sunday my score went up 7 points. I'm guessing this immediate impact was the result of the 3 hard inqs and not the soft ones. Since all three hard inqs were over a year old, this certainly contradicts the notion that old inquiries don't negatively impact ones score. Finally, I'm not convinced that the CreditExpert score we view is the "real" score. For all we know, the soft deletions may have impacted the "real" one. In any case, as I said before, I'm beginning to believe in the long-term negative impact of soft inquiries, so good riddance, lol!
Re: Doc's trick - 21 soft inq's del Thanks to Nave, Doc and Saar for responding to my thread. You threee old timers here have been real fine gentlemen on the board. Nave - In my opinion, CE does not update the credit score immediately. It has never been clear to me whether it is done every day; or 24 hours after last access; or whether it even updates on Saturday at all. As of today ( Monday ), there has been no change in score for a week. Doc & Saar - I have had the ability to compare my CE score with my real EX score at the Credit Union. Each time this happened my CE score was considerably lower than my real EX score generated to aplly for a credit card. In one case there was definitely a 28 point difference. I believe the scores were approximately 700 vs 728. My memory is not exact about the scores but I do remember the 28 point difference. I plan to OPTOUT when I get a chance. When I do, I will have good company with Marie, Saar and Doc. Best regards, Jim
